People are leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina as a consequence of the lack of harmony among them and the exploitation in their daily lives in the country, the Metropolitan of the Dabar and Bosnia, Hristozom Jevic, told top officials and foreign ambassadors at his Orthodox Christmas reception in Sarajevo on Thursday.
“These are all consequences and results of the non-harmonization of people, citizens in this country, and the exploitation of life in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Hrizostom said, expressing concern for the demographic decline in the country.
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The Bosnian Serb member of the tripartite Presidency, Milorad Dodik, Bosnia’s international administrator, Valentin Inzko, and the ambassadors of Sweden, Italy, the UK attended the event, among others.
Christmas is a holiday of peace, love and goodwill between people, he said, stressing that that peace must be maintained and not be put in jeopardy.
“The precondition for this is goodwill among people and among churches and religious communities, especially among those whom the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina elected democratically,” he said. “All of us together need to work toward positively changing the unfavourable image from our reality. Let’s do this in the name of the history and dignity of our people, churches and religious communities who deserve it.”
The religious leader also complained about numerous cases of the property of religious communities in the country being taken away due to the lack of legislation on the matter.
“We want to believe and hope that Bosnia’s current Presidency and the Parliamentary Assembly will put the adoption of a law on restitution on the agenda. That is a law which we have put together more than 15 years ago, and now it is being kept in locked up in some drawers. Expecting a blessing and prosperity based on injustice, robbery and usurpation can not be expected,” he stressed.
